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[40]
God therefore commanded that Adam and his wife should eat of all
the rest of the plants, but to abstain from the tree of knowledge; and
foretold to them, that if they touched it, it would prove their destruction.
But while all the living creatures had one language, 1
at that time the serpent, which then lived together with Adam and his wife,
shewed an envious disposition, at his supposal of their living happily,
and in obedience to the commands of God; and imagining, that when they
disobeyed them, they would fall into calamities, he persuaded the woman,
out of a malicious intention, to taste of the tree of knowledge, telling
them, that in that tree was the knowledge of good and evil; which knowledge,
when they should obtain, they would lead a happy life; nay, a life not
inferior to that of a god: by which means he overcame the woman, and persuaded
her to despise the command of God. Now when she had tasted of that tree,
and was pleased with its fruit, she persuaded Adam to make use of it also.
Upon this they perceived that they were become naked to one another; and
being ashamed thus to appear abroad, they invented somewhat to cover them;
for the tree sharpened their understanding; and they covered themselves
with fig-leaves; and tying these before them, out of modesty, they thought
they were happier than they were before, as they had discovered what they
were in want of. But when God came into the garden, Adam, who was wont
before to come and converse with him, being conscious of his wicked behavior,
went out of the way. This behavior surprised God; and he asked what was
the cause of this his procedure; and why he, that before delighted in that
conversation, did now fly from it, and avoid it. When he made no reply,
as conscious to himself that he had transgressed the command of God, God
said, "I had before determined about you both, how you might lead
a happy life, without any affliction, and care, and vexation of soul; and
that all things which might contribute to your enjoyment and pleasure should
grow up by my providence, of their own accord, without your own labor and
pains-taking; which state of labor and pains-taking would soon bring on
old age, and death would not be at any remote distance: but now thou hast
abused this my good-will, and hast disobeyed my commands; for thy silence
is not the sign of thy virtue, but of thy evil conscience." However,
Adam excused his sin, and entreated God not to be angry at him, and laid
the blame of what was done upon his wife; and said that he was deceived
by her, and thence became an offender; while she again accused the serpent.
But God allotted him punishment, because he weakly submitted to the counsel
of his wife; and said the ground should not henceforth yield its fruits
of its own accord, but that when it should be harassed by their labor,
it should bring forth some of its fruits, and refuse to bring forth others.
He also made Eve liable to the inconveniency of breeding, and the sharp
pains of bringing forth children; and this because she persuaded Adam with
the same arguments wherewith the serpent had persuaded her, and had thereby
brought him into a calamitous condition. He also deprived the serpent of
speech, out of indignation at his malicious disposition towards Adam. Besides
this, he inserted poison under his tongue, and made him an enemy to men;
and suggested to them, that they should direct their strokes against his
head, that being the place wherein lay his mischievous designs towards
men, and it being easiest to take vengeance on him, that way. And when
he had deprived him of the use of his feet, he made him to go rolling all
along, and dragging himself upon the ground. And when God had appointed
these penalties for them, he removed Adam and Eve out of the garden into
another place.

1 Hence
it appears, that Josephus thought several, at least, of the brute animals,
particularly the serpent, could speak before the fall. And I think few
of the more perfect kinds of those animals want the organs of speech at
this day. Many inducements there are also to a notion, that the present
state they are in, is not their original state; and that their capacities
have been once much greater than we now see them, and are capable of being
restored to their former condition. But as to this most ancient, and authentic,
and probably allegorical account of that grand affair of the fall of our
first parents, I have somewhat more to say in way of conjecture, but being
only a conjecture, I omit it: only thus far, that the imputation of the
sin of our first parents to their posterity, any further than as some way
the cause or occasion of man's mortality, seems almost entirely groundless;
and that both man, and the other subordinate creatures, are hereafter to
be delivered from the curse then brought upon them, and at last to be delivered
from that bondage of corruption, Romans 8:19-22.

Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.

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